


A Shadow On The Moon

by jay_of_lasgalen



Category: Swordspoint Series - Kushner
Genre: M/M, Riverside
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-06
Updated: 2010-05-06
Packaged: 2017-10-09 08:17:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/84962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jay_of_lasgalen/pseuds/jay_of_lasgalen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Richard comes home late one night, he is alarmed to find Alec missing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Shadow On The Moon

** A Shadow On The Moon **

 

 

Their rooms were empty when Richard came home, apart from one or two scattered pages of the mysterious calculations that had kept Alec so preoccupied for the last few weeks.  “Marie?” he called.  “Have you seen …”

 

“If you’re looking for Alec, he’s up on the roof,” Marie shouted up the stairs.

 

_The roof?_  “Damn,” Richard muttered.  The houses of Riverside were tall, several storeys high; and the roofs were a long way off the ground.  “What’s he doing up there?”

 

She shrugged.  “How should I know?  He’s Alec.”

 

He picked up one of the sheets of paper hoping for a clue, but it was incomprehensible – a sequence of numbers and letters, and a diagram with three different sized circles in a row.  Alec kept trying to teach him to read, but he did not even recognise most of the letters set down.  He dropped the page again and hurried on up the next flight of stairs to the attics and in the darkness crossed to a small dormer window that led onto the steeply pitched roof.  The moon was full tonight, and under its bright light he scrambled out among the gutters and gargoyles.  “Alec?”

 

“Up here,” a voice called.

 

Alec was wedged in an angle between the roof and a cluster of chimneys.  Richard climbed up cautiously and joined him in this precarious perch.  Then he waited, relieved that they were at least well away from the edge.

 

“Look at the moon,” Alec said dreamily.  “So bright, so beautiful.  It looks as if you could fall into it and drown.”  The white light shone down on his upturned face until his pale skin seemed to glow.

 

“Very beautiful,” Richard agreed softly.  “Alec, why are we here?”

 

“It’s tonight.” Alec replied.  “It has to be tonight.  I’ve waited and waited, and now the time is right.”

 

“Right for what?” Richard asked uneasily.

 

“I worked it all out,” Alec said conversationally.  “It’s taken me weeks, but I know it’s right.  I’m glad you’re here to watch.  I was afraid you’d be too late.”

 

“Alec …”  Richard gauged the distance from their perch to the roof’s edge, and wondered how long he could hang on to Alec if he decided to cast himself headlong from the roof, or try to walk along the ribbon of light that seemed to lead a pathway straight to the moon.  He took his hand.  “Alec, please …”

 

“Look – Richard, do you see it?  I was right!”  Alec broke away and jumped to his feet.  Richard made a grab for him, but missed as he scrambled up the mossy tiles to balance on the ridge like an ungainly black bat, pointing wildly.  “I was right!”

 

A shadow had passed over the edge of the moon, as if a bite had been taken out of it.  Richard stared.  “Is that what this is about?”

 

“Yes!”  Alec declared excitedly.  “I was right.  The motions of the moon and the planets – they can be plotted and predicted, just like we said, Harry and I.  Do you see?”

 

Richard looked up in wonder as the shadow grew, blotting out more and more of the moon.  “You worked this out?” he asked.  “You _knew_ this would happen?”  He stared at his friend.  “Of course – all those calculations you’ve been doing.”

 

“The phases of the moon,” Alec explained.  “The earth and the sun – there is a pattern, and it can be calculated.  We told them, but they wouldn’t listen.”  He fell silent again and sank down to roost crossed-legged on the ridge of the roof.

 

Richard watched his beautiful, brilliant scholar, but Alec was calmer now; full of the satisfaction of being proved right and caught up by the eerie beauty of the eclipse.  The shadow slowly spread until it covered the face of the moon, turning it a dull red.  Richard watched the eclipse for a few more moments, and then stirred, feeling stiff and cold.  “Alec, can we go in now?  It’s a beautiful sight, but it’s freezing up here!”

 

“In a minute.”  Alec watched until the shadow on the moon began to move away and the pure white light shone down again.  He gave a low, passionate sigh, and in one of his sudden mercurial changes of mood leapt to his feet again.  He skidded on the icy tiles and slid down the roof with a wild shout of exultation. 

 

Richard lunged to catch him as he swooped past, and together they fell against one of the chimneys.  Alec was laughing wildly, his eyes glittering in the moonlight.  Richard held Alec close as his heart resumed its normal pace.  “You idiot,” he said softly.  “You brilliant, beautiful idiot.”  He could feel the heat of the chimney at his back, and it reminded him how bitterly cold it was among the rooftops of Riverside.  “Let’s go back in.”

 

Alec shivered against him.  “It’s cold,” he said on a note of surprise.

 

“Then come inside,” Richard urged with a smile, “And let me warm you.”

 

 

 

**The End**

 

 

 


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